I read the article about ornithopter for the first time in the Dune Encyclopedia today. A very inventive take on the workings and origins of the ornithopter but not what I imagined when reading Dune. What gets me is, if the ornithopter is really an organic clam controlled using electrodes and stuff, dosen't that violate the strictures of the Jihad? I would expect this from the Tlielaxu, but the rest of the Imperium? Or does the coupleing of organic and machine only apply to sentients? Still a maschine controlling organics (even if there is a human at the controls)? I realise the Dune Encyclopedia isn't exactly cannon, but still anyone else find it a bit weird?

Here is the article:

The basic method of airbornetravel in the Imperium. The commonornithopter was a very latedevelopment in the history ofatmospheric flight. The firstornithopters — that is, vehicles that flylike birds rather than powered glidersor helicopters — were built by a teamof scientists being held as politicalprisoners (as a result of the abortiveThinkers' Rebellion of 7600 B.G.) byEmperor Neweh in 7585 B.G. Theirhead was Jehane Golitle, who wasplaced in charge of an understaffed,underfunded, and discouraged team ofscientists, and told to earn her team'scontinued well-being by inventinguseful devices which would make aprofit for the emperor.The group discovered manypreviously unsuspected uses for alreadyexisting artifacts, and they scouredImperial Scientific Archives in adesperate search for inventions whichhad been discarded as unfit for acomputerized society, but which mightbe made economically feasible if onewas clever enough. One of the group'smost fruitful rediscoveries was the"Heart Scallop" (Perpetuusopercularis) of the Forannis Triad. TheORNITHOPTER 569Heart Scallop, so named because of itscontinual, regular, and powerfulmuscular contraction-expansion cycle,was a land mollusk, a soft-shelledbivalve which grew to weight upwardsof three hundred pounds, noted for theastounding strength of its singlemuscle. The Heart Scallop begins itslife cycle as an airborne polyp,anchoring itself to a likely cliff-face orlarge tree after a short adolescence inthe planet's jet stream. After anchoring,the animal survives by pumping vastamounts of air through its alimentarycanal, straining micro-organisms fromthe air for sustenance. Aside from itssize, the Heart Scallop had been seen asnothing extraordinary, except by someof the slaves on the Forannis Triad.Golitle discovered that the slaves usedthe scallops to aid in their work: theywould carefully trim the shell of a largescallop, and, by connecting it to aseries of levers and rods, transform theHeart Scallop's continual bellowsaction into usable power.Golitle had been looking forsome method of constructing a flyingmachine that could combine theversatility of a bird with the size of anartificial aircraft, and she discoveredthe secret she sought in the HeartScallop. She petitioned the emperor toallow the entire group to travel to theForannis Triad: the petition receivedrapid approval. Golitle removed herentire research facility to the triad andbegan intensive experimentation,culminating in 7580 with the test flightof the first true ornithopter.The basic element of thecommon ornithopter is the installationat the wing-junctures of adomesticated, specially-bred HeartScallop which is connected to a seriesof electrical leads. The electricalcurrents have two purposes: one line isused to shock the bivalve intodormancy when the pilot of theornithopter wishes to utilize fixed-wingflight (normally jet-assisted). When thepower is disconnected, the HeartScallop immediately resumes pulsing,thus providing the ornithopter with acertain amount of fail-safe capacity.The other line in the electrical systemis connected to the mollusk's nervecenters, and, when engaged, causes theHeart Scallop to increase its pulsationrate by an amount which Varies withthe intensity of the current. This secondline is seldom used except when thepilot wishes to brake rapidly or wishesto take off from a constricted site.The efficiency of theornithopter's "engine" is difficult tosurpass. The scallops need very littlemaintenance. They must beperiodically retrimmed to prevent themfrom growing beyond the constraints oftheir installation pods, but theOTHEYM 570connections between the mollusk andthe aircraft assembly are remarkablydurable, since the animal treats thewing and body of the ornithopter as ifthose structures were its own shell. Thescallops need no fuel, since they strainthe air they fly through (though goodmaintenance procedure mandatesallowing the creatures to continue tofunction even when the ornithopter isnot in use — a point which occurredlate to ornithopter manufacturers whodid not use detachable wings on theearlier models). The major repair andmaintenance problems associated withornithopters are the wing gears andjoints, which are complicated ball-andsocketconnections, and structuralproblems arising from the switchoverfrom bird-like flight, which requiresflexible wings for optimumperformance, to fixed-wing flight,which requires rigid structures.Ornithopters faced considerableresistance when first introduced, sincethe piloting of one was quite differentfrom the flying of fixed-wing craft. TheImperial Pilots Guild refused to admitmembers on the basis of ornithopterflight-time until 7520 B.G. and manysystems refused to permit ornithoptersto be used as anything but sport orcommuter vehicles. One of the earliestsport ornithopterists was I.V.Holtzman, who was seriously injured ina crash of an early model. EmperorNeweh, distressed with the slowacceptance of the ornithopter, directedthe scientists who developed it to ceasefurther development work on thedevice, and instead to concentrate on aunified astrological theory that couldbe used to detect plots against his lifeamong his courtiers.Although slow in coming,acceptance of ornithopters eventuallyarrived, and by 7000 B.G., they werethe favored mode of airbornetransports. The Butlerian Jihad, with itsproscription of complicated machinery,advanced the simple, effectiveornithopter to almost sole possession ofplanetary skies.

For all the seriousness of the pre-prequel Dune books I have always thought that the ornithopter article in the DE stood out as absolutely absurd and silly. It's just so far out in left field you have to chuckle, then read it again and chuckle some more. I wonder what McNelly thought when he read the first draft? Probably 'Oh, I gotta include this. Frank's gonna love it."